The present invention relates to a centrifuge for clarifying or separating suspensions and having a centrifuge drum with a bottom, a lid, an annular seal that unites them, a chamber that provides access for the suspension, and a distributor, past which the suspension can be supplied to a package of conical plates provided with inner ascending channels.
A centrifuge of this type is known, for example, from German OS No. 2 845 733. The suspension is supplied in this centrifuge to a sedimentation space from the access chamber. The portion of the suspension that does not enter the space is supplied to inner ascending channels by connections that are positioned stationary in the distributor. The sedimentation space has a gap in its bottom that can be closed off with a flexible ring. The drum has de-sludging apertures in the vicinity of its longest diameter. The apertures can be closed off by means of a liquid-activated sliding floor. While the sliding floor is closed the gap in the bottom of the sedimentation space is closed off by the flexible ring as the result of pressure acting on the ring. When the sliding floor is opened to allow the ejection of sludge, the gap is freed, allowing the solids collected there to be extracted. Only coarse solids will collect in the sedimentation space, with the product flowing along with its content of the rest of the solids through the interior ascending channels in the package of plates.
The point at which the liquid phases of the suspension are separated is in the vicinity of the ascending channels. The liquid phases are separated while the solid particles are being centrifuged out.
The gaps between the separate plates in the package are kept very small to obtain as high a level of clarification as possible in the centrifuge drum, leading with some types of solids to the clogging up of the ascending channels and of the gaps demarcated by the plates.